USA TODAY Review

Family emerges stronger after ordeal in 'Black Wave'

In 2003, John and Jean Silverwood, a middle-aged couple from San Diego, took their life savings to buy a 55-foot sailboat, packed up their four children and did exactly that.

Their book, Black Wave, chronicles that adventure of a lifetime, the adversities the family faced and the ending of their two-year voyage from New York to the South Pacific that nearly turned their dream into a deadly nightmare.

Jean writes most of the story, starting at the climatic moment. About 350 miles off Tahiti, the family's catamaran, the Emerald Jane, plows into a hidden reef in treacherous nighttime seas. Pounded by giant waves, the boat shatters. John is severely injured when the 2,500-pound mast topples and nearly severs his leg. The family is stranded on a razor-sharp coral reef, struggling to keep John alive and somehow survive.

Weaving scenes from the drama with flashbacks of the journey that got them there, Jean tells a remarkable tale. And it's not just a seafaring travelogue. The story dives deep to where intimate triumphs and strife meet the wonder and dangers of nature.

The Silverwoods' stormy marriage, John's alcoholism and Jean's difficulties living aboard a boat are all part of their journey leading to self-discovery. How each of the children Ben, 16, Amelia, 14, Jack, 9, and Camille, 5 fare while reluctantly, sometimes angrily, adapting from their suburban life of shopping malls and video games to become a working sailboat crew proves especially compelling.

With Jean at the narrative helm, the writing is uneven and emotional. From motherly gushing about the children to sniping at her living-in-the-moment husband, Jean is a self-described "worrier" whose storytelling wavers between ecstatic moments and depths of frustration and anxiety.

But the story's dramatic episodes give the writing leeway. Everyone's resolve is tested. Everyone's personal strengths are needed. And, ultimately, this family grows closer than ever. John finishes the narrative, describing the family's ordeal from his near-death point of view.

Filled with stress and misfortune, Black Wave undoubtedly will take some wind out of the sails of your own great-escape fantasies. But its most engaging and profound moments also will inspire readers to find ways to live to the fullest.